Assault-weapons ban: What happened to 12 attempts to reinstate it

Seattle Police Dept. SWAT team acting Sgt. Tom Fitzgerald carries a Chinese SKS assault rifle, taken from a 16-year old boy, past a table of other assault weapons and ammunition magazines at a news conference to support renewal of legislation banning those types of weapons, Tuesday, April 27, 2004, in Seattle. The joint news conference with the Seattle Police Dept., Washington Ceasefire and the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence announced their support to renew the federal assault weapons law, set to expire in September. The 10-year old law requires Congress to reauthorize the ban and President Bush to sign the bill to continue the prohibition of the manufacture and sale of military-style, semiautomatic weapons. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

Assault-weapons ban: What happened to 12 bills to reinstate it

The assault-weapons ban expired in 2004, and a dozen attempts to renew or reinstate it failed.

Storified by Digital First Media · Sat, Dec 15 2012 13:54:19

In 1994, President Clinton signed a law barring the manufacture of certain semi-automatic rifles. The so-called assault-weapons ban expired in 2004, however, and was not renewed.

Below is a list of the 12 bills that would have reinstated the federal assault-weapons ban. Most of the sponsors and cosponsors are Democrats. A number of the high-profile supporters ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in either 2004 or 2008, but Democratic leaders in Congress mostly kept their distance from the proposals.

The bills begin with a flurry of activity in 2003 just before the ban was due to expire and again in 2004 just after it expired. When they became stuck in committee, sponsors tried some tricky legislative maneuvers to put them up for a vote by the entire chamber, but those failed. Each later attempt had fewer and fewer cosponsors.

No bill to reinstate the assault-weapons ban has been filed since 2008.

What it would have done: Made the assault-weapons ban permanent and added other restrictions.

What happened: It was referred to the a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee, where no action was taken. A discharge petition, a rare legislative maneuver designed to bring a bill to the floor for a vote without passing through committee, was filed. It reached 72 signatures, including Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, but fell far short of the 218 it needed.